THERE’S STILL WORK TO BE DONE FOR VETS IN ‘AMERICA’S VETERANS CITY’

Nine decades of millions of men and women who had military service that included some duty or visits in Southern California led multitudes of veterans to make their home in San Diego County.

The prevalence of so many veterans, some 240,000 in the region’s population now, made indelible effects on its character, which today nearly all San Diegans accept with appreciation.

Patriotism, industriousness and stewardship, dedication to improvement, and habits of volunteering and serving others are strong San Diego attributes that veterans point to as profound evidence of their immense stake here.

The phrases, expressions, names and declarations containing both the titles San Diego and veterans, could now brand us as “America’s Veterans City.”

Still, the steady stream of new veteran residents has at times challenged the region’s capabilities to house, employ, educate, provide health and social services, and, albeit rarely, even to assimilate.

Veterans themselves were among the first to recognize when challenges peaked or outpaced adequate responses. They reacted with predictable assemblies to gather intelligence and conduct operations, making conclusions from assessments of problems and deficiencies, and seeking resources from commercial, charitable, institutional, religious and governmental groups to forge solutions.

In the late 1970s and ’80s, local leaders of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America and other veterans organizations, vigorously advocated for improved performance by local, state and national governments for services to veterans.

San Diego experienced some social trials during the turbulent era of the Vietnam War and post-Vietnam. Leading veterans of that time soon received guidance and encouragement from then-San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson. Wilson, a former Marine officer, could distinguish an effective team from a boisterous crowd, and, at his urging, veterans organizations and individual vets combined voices and energies.

That banding and bonding phase flourished in the ’80s, with some noteworthy results.

Veterans Village was founded in 1981. First named “Vietnam Veterans of San Diego,” the organization in 1984 opened its first facility, the “Landing Zone,” a 44-bed veterans alcohol and drug treatment center. By 1987, the local Veterans Day Parade was resurrected. The nation’s first-ever Stand Down event to aid homeless veterans was organized in 1988.

Along with these, another group formed then still functions today: The United Veterans Council of San Diego County, which is comprised of more than 200 veterans organizations, community service groups, and businesses, and has more than 1,300 subscribing members.

UVC serves primarily as a forum for information sharing and a marketplace of ideas for bettering veterans’ quality of life. It still acts to distill numerous shouts of alarm and calls for action into coherent expressions of purpose, and in February published a statement of priorities for veterans: employment, housing and shelter, and enrollment for government services.

UVC plans to promote its priorities as follows:

Jobs

• Elevate employers’ awareness of the severe underemployment of veterans.

• Showcase the myriad positive attributes that veterans bring to the workplace.

• Increase the reach and effectiveness of career preparations and of job placement services.

VA enrollment

• Support veterans transition services outreach.

• Advocate for mandatory inclusion of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and California Department of Veterans Affairs representatives in the military’s Transition Assistance Program sessions for service members prior to discharge.

• Establish volunteer transition assistance teams for VA and CDVA to support enrollment during military and veterans departments’ transition sessions.

The UVC annual priorities in 2012 as employment, housing and enrollment will doubtless succeed as an elevator speech. However, the specificity and span of the promotion strategies demonstrates the dire circumstances: the unemployment rate for veterans age 18 to 24 is 27 percent, there are well more than 3,000 homeless veterans, and an estimated 1,000-plus veterans eligible for significant VA benefits are not enrolled or are identified as non-enrolled.

Worrisome conditions, which regional military commanders are addressing, as they must continuously conduct increasing numbers of discharges that result from reduced force sizes and restricted budgets. Military TAP activities are under rigorous study and revision to provide exiting service members and their families with effective preparation for discharge or retirement.

Also, a recent proliferation of committees, boards, commissions, and coalitions with purposes or missions inclusive of the three prioritized deficiencies has arisen, yet the deficiencies remain, and some still worsen. 2010-2011 saw some real improvements in housing and shelter for veterans, especially by the VA and some private partners, notably Veterans Village of San Diego. Still, the 2012 homeless count includes a shocking number of unsheltered veterans.

Too many of San Diego’s veterans still have these unmet basic needs, despite employers with job vacancies, and despite ever-expanding government and charitable shelter and housing initiatives, and despite the VA Benefits Administration’s infusion of staffing and resources for enrolling and delivering benefits to veterans.

To one grizzled old vet, a single employable but jobless veteran is far too many; one veteran without a bed under a roof every night is too much homelessness; one veteran who lacks enrolled status to receive any VA benefits that could address medical or counseling or financial needs is too large a non-enfranchised population.

UVC, along with many allies, intends to see its priorities recognized and supported. May the earnest attention of hosts of San Diegans help ensure that those priorities are not just codified on stickers and recited in elevators, but are substantially realized. Pete Wilson might accept our pledge to report progress before year’s end, and perhaps he would offer judgment on the validity of a “Veterans City” title, or better yet, we can ask a vet.

Jack Harkins is chairman of the United Veterans Council of San Diego County.